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He D, Öğmen H. A neural model for vector decomposition and relative-motion perception. Vision Res 2023; 202:108142. [PMID: 36423519 DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2022.108142] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2021] [Revised: 09/22/2022] [Accepted: 10/27/2022] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
The perception of motion not only depends on the detection of motion signals but also on choosing and applying reference-frames according to which motion is interpreted. Here we propose a neural model that implements the common-fate principle for reference-frame selection. The model starts with a retinotopic layer of directionally-tuned motion detectors. The Gestalt common-fate principle is applied to the activities of these detectors to implement in two neural populations the direction and the magnitude (speed) of the reference-frame. The output activities of retinotopic motion-detectors are decomposed using the direction of the reference-frame. The direction and magnitude of the reference-frame are then applied to these decomposed motion-vectors to generate activities that reflect relative-motion perception, i.e., the perception of motion with respect to the prevailing reference-frame. We simulated this model for classical relative motion stimuli, viz., the three-dot, rotating-wheel, and point-walker (biological motion) paradigms and found the model performance to be close to theoretical vector decomposition values. In the three-dot paradigm, the model made the prediction of perceived curved-trajectories for the target dot when its horizontal velocity was slower or faster than the flanking dots. We tested this prediction in two psychophysical experiments and found a good qualitative and quantitative agreement between the model and the data. Our results show that a simple neural network using solely motion information can account for the perception of group and relative motion.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dongcheng He
- Laboratory of Perceptual and Cognitive Dynamics, University of Denver, Denver, CO, USA; Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Denver, Denver, CO, USA; Ritchie School of Engineering & Computer Science, University of Denver, Denver, CO, USA
| | - Haluk Öğmen
- Laboratory of Perceptual and Cognitive Dynamics, University of Denver, Denver, CO, USA; Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Denver, Denver, CO, USA; Ritchie School of Engineering & Computer Science, University of Denver, Denver, CO, USA.
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Drissi-Daoudi L, Ögmen H, Herzog MH. Features integrate along a motion trajectory when object integrity is preserved. J Vis 2021; 21:4. [PMID: 34739035 PMCID: PMC8572464 DOI: 10.1167/jov.21.12.4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Information about a moving object is usually poor at each retinotopic location because photoreceptor activation is short, noisy, and affected by shadows, reflections of other objects, and so on. Integration across the motion trajectory may yield a much better estimate about the objects’ features. Using the sequential metacontrast paradigm, we have shown previously that features, indeed, integrate along a motion trajectory in a long-lasting window of unconscious processing. In the sequential metacontrast paradigm, a percept of two diverging streams is elicited by the presentation of a central line followed by a sequence of flanking pairs of lines. When several lines are spatially offset, the offsets integrate mandatorily for several hundreds of milliseconds along the motion trajectory of the streams. We propose that, within these long-lasting windows, stimuli are first grouped based on Gestalt principles of grouping. These processes establish reference frames that are used to attribute features. Features are then integrated following their respective reference frame. Here using occlusion and bouncing effects, we show that indeed such grouping operations are in place. We found that features integrate only when the spatiotemporal integrity of the object is preserved. Moreover, when several moving objects are present, only features belonging to the same object integrate. Overall, our results show that feature integration is a deliberate strategy of the brain and long-lasting windows of processing can be seen as periods of sense making.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leila Drissi-Daoudi
- Laboratory of Psychophysics, Brain Mind Institute, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland.,
| | - Haluk Ögmen
- Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Denver, Denver, CO, USA.,
| | - Michael H Herzog
- Laboratory of Psychophysics, Brain Mind Institute, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland.,
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Rampone G, Makin ADJ, Tyson-Carr J, Bertamini M. Spinning objects and partial occlusion: Smart neural responses to symmetry. Vision Res 2021; 188:1-9. [PMID: 34271291 DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2021.06.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2021] [Revised: 06/04/2021] [Accepted: 06/19/2021] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
In humans, extrastriate visual areas are strongly activated by symmetry. However, perfect symmetry is rare in natural visual images. Recent findings showed that when parts of a symmetric shape are presented at different points in time the process relies on a perceptual memory buffer. Does this temporal integration need a retinotopic reference frame? For the first time we tested integration of parts both in the temporal and spatial domain, using a non-retinotopic frame of reference. In Experiment 1, an irregular polygonal shape (either symmetric or asymmetric) was partly occluded by a rectangle for 500 ms (T1). The rectangle moved to the opposite side to reveal the other half of the shape, whilst occluding the previously visible half (T2). The reference frame for the object was static: the two parts stimulated retinotopically corresponding receptive fields (revealed over time). A symmetry-specific ERP response from ~300 ms after T2 was observed. In Experiment 2 dynamic occlusion was combined with an additional step at T2: the new half-shape and occluder were rotated by 90°. Therefore, there was a moving frame of reference and the retinal correspondence between the two parts was disrupted. A weaker but significant symmetry-specific response was recorded. This result extends previous findings: global symmetry representation can be achieved in extrastriate areas non-retinotopically, through integration in both temporal and spatial domain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giulia Rampone
- Department of Psychology, University of Liverpool, Eleanor Rathbone Building, L697ZA Liverpool, UK.
| | - Alexis D J Makin
- Department of Psychology, University of Liverpool, Eleanor Rathbone Building, L697ZA Liverpool, UK
| | - John Tyson-Carr
- Department of Psychology, University of Liverpool, Eleanor Rathbone Building, L697ZA Liverpool, UK
| | - Marco Bertamini
- Department of Psychology, University of Liverpool, Eleanor Rathbone Building, L697ZA Liverpool, UK; Department of General Psychology, Via Venezia, 8 - 35131, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
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Human visual motion perception shows hallmarks of Bayesian structural inference. Sci Rep 2021; 11:3714. [PMID: 33580096 PMCID: PMC7881251 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-82175-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/05/2020] [Accepted: 01/13/2021] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
Motion relations in visual scenes carry an abundance of behaviorally relevant information, but little is known about how humans identify the structure underlying a scene's motion in the first place. We studied the computations governing human motion structure identification in two psychophysics experiments and found that perception of motion relations showed hallmarks of Bayesian structural inference. At the heart of our research lies a tractable task design that enabled us to reveal the signatures of probabilistic reasoning about latent structure. We found that a choice model based on the task's Bayesian ideal observer accurately matched many facets of human structural inference, including task performance, perceptual error patterns, single-trial responses, participant-specific differences, and subjective decision confidence-especially, when motion scenes were ambiguous and when object motion was hierarchically nested within other moving reference frames. Our work can guide future neuroscience experiments to reveal the neural mechanisms underlying higher-level visual motion perception.
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Peñaloza B, Herzog MH, Öğmen H. Non-retinotopic adaptive center-surround modulation in motion processing. Vision Res 2020; 174:10-21. [DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2020.05.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2019] [Revised: 05/18/2020] [Accepted: 05/20/2020] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
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Lauffs MM, Choung OH, Ögmen H, Herzog MH, Kerzel D. Reference-frames in vision: Contributions of attentional tracking to nonretinotopic perception in the Ternus-Pikler display. J Vis 2019; 19:7. [DOI: 10.1167/19.12.7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Marc M. Lauffs
- Laboratory of Psychophysics, Brain Mind Institute, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
- ://lpsy.epfl.ch
| | - Oh-Hyeon Choung
- Laboratory of Psychophysics, Brain Mind Institute, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
- ://lpsy.epfl.ch
| | - Haluk Ögmen
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Denver, Denver, CO, USA
- ://www.ogmenlab.com/
| | - Michael H. Herzog
- Laboratory of Psychophysics, Brain Mind Institute, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
- ://lpsy.epfl.ch
| | - Dirk Kerzel
- Faculté de Psychologie et des Sciences de l'Éducation, Université de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland
- ://www.unige.ch/fapse/PSY/persons/kerzel/
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Lauffs MM, Choung OH, Öğmen H, Herzog MH. Unconscious retinotopic motion processing affects non-retinotopic motion perception. Conscious Cogn 2018; 62:135-147. [PMID: 29625859 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2018.03.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2017] [Revised: 03/20/2018] [Accepted: 03/21/2018] [Indexed: 10/17/2022]
Abstract
Unconscious visual stimuli can affect conscious perception: For example, an invisible prime can affect responses to a subsequent target. The invisible interpretation of an ambiguous figure can have similar effects. Invisibility in these situations is typically explained by stimulus-suppression in early, retinotopic brain areas. We have previously argued that invisibility is closely linked to Gestalt ("object") organization principles. For example, motion is typically perceived in non-retinotopic, object-centered, and not in retinotopic coordinates. Such is the case for a bicycle-reflector that is perceived as circling, although its retinotopic trajectory is cycloidal. Here, we used a modified Ternus-Pikler display in which, just as in everyday vision, the retinotopic motion is invisible and the non-retinotopic motion is perceived. Nevertheless, the invisible retinotopic motion, can strongly degrade the conscious non-retinotopic motion percept. This effect cannot be explained by inhibition at a retinotopic processing stage.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marc M Lauffs
- École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Brain Mind Institute, Laboratory of Psychophysics, EPFL SV BMI LPSY, Station 19, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland. http://lpsy.epfl.ch
| | - Oh-Hyeon Choung
- École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Brain Mind Institute, Laboratory of Psychophysics, EPFL SV BMI LPSY, Station 19, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
| | - Haluk Öğmen
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Daniel Felix Ritchie School of Engineering and Computer Science, University of Denver, 2155 E. Wesley Ave., Room 481, Denver, CO 80208, USA.
| | - Michael H Herzog
- École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Brain Mind Institute, Laboratory of Psychophysics, EPFL SV BMI LPSY, Station 19, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
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Abstract
van Boxtel and Koch (Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. doi: 10.3758/s13423-016-1010-0 , 2016) reported finding problems in the Test for Excess Success (TES) analysis in Francis (Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 21, 1180-1187, 2014). They argued that their findings undermined the general analysis and the conclusions of the specific TES analysis for their article (van Boxtel & Koch in Psychological Science, 23(4), 410-418, 2012). As shown in this paper, their reported problems reflect misunderstandings about both the general properties of a TES analysis and how it was applied to their specific set of findings. Another look at the findings and theoretical claims in van Boxtel and Koch (Psychological Science, 23(4), 410-418, 2012) confirms the appearance of excess success.
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Jäkel F, Singh M, Wichmann FA, Herzog MH. An overview of quantitative approaches in Gestalt perception. Vision Res 2016; 126:3-8. [PMID: 27353224 DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2016.06.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2016] [Revised: 06/22/2016] [Accepted: 06/22/2016] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
Gestalt psychology is often criticized as lacking quantitative measurements and precise mathematical models. While this is true of the early Gestalt school, today there are many quantitative approaches in Gestalt perception and the special issue of Vision Research "Quantitative Approaches in Gestalt Perception" showcases the current state-of-the-art. In this article we give an overview of these current approaches. For example, ideal observer models are one of the standard quantitative tools in vision research and there is a clear trend to try and apply this tool to Gestalt perception and thereby integrate Gestalt perception into mainstream vision research. More generally, Bayesian models, long popular in other areas of vision research, are increasingly being employed to model perceptual grouping as well. Thus, although experimental and theoretical approaches to Gestalt perception remain quite diverse, we are hopeful that these quantitative trends will pave the way for a unified theory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Frank Jäkel
- Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, Germany.
| | - Manish Singh
- Department of Psychology and Center for Cognitive Science, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, United States
| | - Felix A Wichmann
- Neural Information Processing Group, Faculty of Science, and Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Tübingen, University of Tübingen, Germany; Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Empirical Inference Department, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Michael H Herzog
- Laboratory of Psychophysics, Brain Mind Institute, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland
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Thunell E, van der Zwaag W, Ögmen H, Plomp G, Herzog MH. Retinotopic encoding of the Ternus-Pikler display reflected in the early visual areas. J Vis 2016; 16:26. [PMID: 26894510 PMCID: PMC4777237 DOI: 10.1167/16.3.26] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
The visual representation of the world is often assumed to be retinotopic, and many visual brain areas are indeed organized retinotopically. Visual perception, however, is not based on a reference frame anchored in retinotopic coordinates. For example, when an object moves, motion of its constituent parts is perceived relative to the object rather than in retinotopic coordinates. The moving object thus serves as a nonretinotopic reference system for computing the properties of its parts. It is largely unknown how the brain accomplishes this feat. Here, we used the Ternus-Pikler display to pit retinotopic processing in a stationary reference system against nonretinotopic processing in a moving one. Using 7T fMRI, we found that the average blood-oxygen-level dependent activations in V1, V2, and V3 reflected the retinotopic properties, but not the nonretinotopic percepts, of the Ternus-Pikler display. In the human motion processing complex (hMT+), activations were compatible with both retinotopic and nonretinotopic encoding. Thus, hMT+ may be the first visual area encoding the nonretinotopic percepts of the Ternus-Pikler display.
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Herzog MH, Thunell E, Ögmen H. Putting low-level vision into global context: Why vision cannot be reduced to basic circuits. Vision Res 2015; 126:9-18. [PMID: 26456069 DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2015.09.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2015] [Revised: 07/28/2015] [Accepted: 09/18/2015] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
To cope with the complexity of vision, most models in neuroscience and computer vision are of hierarchical and feedforward nature. Low-level vision, such as edge and motion detection, is explained by basic low-level neural circuits, whose outputs serve as building blocks for more complex circuits computing higher level features such as shape and entire objects. There is an isomorphism between states of the outer world, neural circuits, and perception, inspired by the positivistic philosophy of the mind. Here, we show that although such an approach is conceptually and mathematically appealing, it fails to explain many phenomena including crowding, visual masking, and non-retinotopic processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael H Herzog
- Laboratory of Psychophysics, Brain Mind Institute, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland.
| | - Evelina Thunell
- Laboratory of Psychophysics, Brain Mind Institute, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland
| | - Haluk Ögmen
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Center for Neuro-Engineering and Cognitive Science, University of Houston, TX, USA
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